Is Being Smart Better than Being Alive and Free?

America's education and military both need reform. The education needs less money and the military needs more in order for this reform to be successful. First, the education system needs to be simplified. The students in America are learning more than what is needed for life. I support specializing high school classes so that classes are more career oriented and simplifying the classes that have nothing to do with the students career goals. The military needs to toughen up. When America is a greater threat, other countries do not want to mess with it. The current threats from North Korea and the Middle East would be virtually nonexistent because they would be scared that they would be destroyed if they ever bombed America. Furthermore, when a country threatens America, it should respond with deadly force as opposed to diplomacy. When this is accomplished, America's education and military would be better for all American citizens.

Military Spending Should Not Be Cut

In a previous debate we stated opinions concerning the privatization of things from the public sector, and I did not agree that private interests would always be the best avenues for outsourcing of public services. Education is one of them. Public school systems have long be a heated subject in our nation, and with the current economic struggles our country is experiencing they are still a much-debated topic. Our education system has fallen down the ladder globally over the last 3 decades to the point we are best an embarrassment intellectual to ourselves. Since the restrictions on this topic are clear, cut one or the other, it goes without saying that I feel we should cut spending for education, but with a clear-cut design to begin utilizing private sources for educating our children. There are numerous, highly successful private ventures that are getting the results we must have out of the education process, if we are to compete in a global world. Cutting military spending will do nothing to solve that problem, and only open us up in areas that could lead to devastating consequences where we would not need an educational budget.

Cut all spending.

I believe that the USA really needs to cut the fat that is in its budget. I think that both the education and military groups need to suffer equally. Our national debt has become ridiculous and if we are to take care of it we need to cut it to the bone.

Cut needless education spending.

There is no link between education spending and student performance. Education spending since 1970 has increased by about 200%, but the reading, math, and sciences scores have remained relatively flat since then. If we want to truly improve education, we should start by cutting spending, and spend on what truly helps improve education but with less money as other OECD countries.

Our brutish past over our future?

Our "defense' budget, is nearly 20% of our expenditures right now. 20%!!!! Even just taking 5% off of that, we would have more than enough to defend our country 20 times over. We have the largest military in the world, and yet it's still not enough for the warhawks and their national "defense" ideal. Yet we are 46th in education in the world, so just giving 5% our national budget to education could make a world's difference and would also help America increase the number of white-collar jobs.

Military spending is astronomical compared to education.

The "better to be alive and uneducated than dead and educated" is an ignorant argument. If you really looked into what exactly is being bought with military spending, you would agree that it is excessive and unnecessary. The iron triangle is real. Military spending benefits the very few at the expense of all taxpayers, not to mention lives that the US deems expendable to US interests.

Knowledge IS Power

Education shouldn't be cut because without education how can American prosper and improve. Military is an important part of USA. However cut spending on education will bring us all hell. Also, with education people can obtain power. Through power, military s gained. Through military defense can be upped. See?? Education is simply an easier to gain better support and military defense without being broke for ever.

Why take away what is so little.

Why should we go to war if we can't develop new technologies with smarter people, and there is no way in hell that cutting any education budget will make that better. Increase the edu. Budget, and decrease the defense budget, if it seems simple in context to me, it should be easier for you.

Military spending should be cut

We could cut our military budget by 80% and still have military superiority in the world. Education has had far too many cuts over the years. We need to turn our attention from war, and start educating a new generation, so they might end the worlds conflict problems for good, through knowledge.

Education is More Important than War

If money was relocated from military spending to educational spending, it would yield a higher output of professionals in America, thus improving the economy, lowering student debt and the debt as % of GDP (which is currently 100%). Education strengthens citizens and a country as a whole, as can be witness in India, China, and Germany, all three of which have tremendously powerful economies. If America's focus is to remain a "global superpower," military aggression and "security" should take a slight hiatus to improve the quality of education, which is so publicly, obviously diminishing.

No, we need more education spending.

We obviously need more education spending since this question could easily have been rephrased more elegantly as “Is military spending more important that education spending in the US?” But perhaps more convincingly I could add that the US spends more on defense presently than the next seventeen biggest spending countries combined.

The military budget is still bloated and could be cut.

Our education system does not properly serve hundreds of thousands of children. Cutting the education budget would only make a bad situation worse. The military still over-spends and under-utilizes equipment. Millions of dollars worth of equipment sits in warehouses, paid for and unused. Cutting the bureaucracy and instituting a streamlined system for purchase or selling of military equipment would save money that can be redirected to education.